Christine Schäfer

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Christine Schäfer (born March 3, 1965 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

education

Christine Schäfer comes from a family of butchers. She spent her school days with the Ursulines in Königstein im Taunus and at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt . Until 1991 she studied classical singing with Ingrid Figur at the Berlin University of the Arts . She also attended master classes by Arleen Augér and Sena Jurinac as well as the song classes by Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau .

Professional development

Christine Schäfer first attracted attention in 1988 with a recital at the Berlin Festival, where she sang Aribert Reimann's Nachtträume . Then the soprano, whose voice was initially classified as too delicate for the opera, made a name for herself as an oratorio singer .

In 1992 she received her first opera engagement in Innsbruck . Already in 1993, after an engagement at the Stadttheater Bern , she made her debut in the USA as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier in San Francisco . As one of its outstanding opera roles that applies Lulu by Alban Berg , with whom she at the 1995 Salzburg Festival occurred. Since then she can be heard and seen there regularly. She was also a guest in Glyndebourne , at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden , in Paris (June 2007 at the Opéra Garnier as Violetta Valery in Christoph Marthaler's production of La traviata , with Jonas Kaufmann as Alfredo), Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich, as well as at the most important opera stages in the USA.

Christine Schäfer's work has been documented on numerous sound carriers since the mid-1990s. Among other things, she sings Aribert Reimann's Night Dreams and Children's Songs and Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire . In 2006, Franz Schubert's Winterreise was published in-house.

In addition to Anna Netrebko , Christine Schäfer appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 2006 as Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro . At the 2007 Salzburg Festival, she stood in for Anna Netrebko at a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat mater , which had been canceled at short notice, and again received very positive reviews. The standard wrote: "Christine Schäfer gave the Marienklage an almost unearthly shine with her clear and precise voice."

The artist worked with great conductors of the time such as Claudio Abbado , Daniel Barenboim , Pierre Boulez , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Simon Rattle and others. Like Dorothea Röschmann , Diana Damrau and Annette Dasch, she is one of the most sought-after German opera singers. In the late summer of 2014, Christine Schäfer took a break from the concert stage for private reasons. In May 2015, her agency announced that the sabbatical would be extended indefinitely.

Since the 2011 winter semester, Christine Schäfer has been a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin . In the 2015/16 winter semester, she became a full professor of singing at this university.

Private

Christine Schäfer has lived with her two children in Berlin since the death of her partner, the photographer and director Oliver Herrmann (1963–2003). The actress Susanne Schäfer is her older sister.

Awards

Movies

  • from Oliver Herrmann : One night. One life. After Pierrot Lunaire , opus 21 by Arnold Schönberg , with Christine Schäfer (soprano) and others. (Script, direction, camera, editing.) Eins54 Film with ZDF and Arte . Germany 1999.
  • by Oliver Herrmann: Dichterliebe. Based on the song cycle opus 48 by Robert Schumann , with Christine Schäfer (soprano), Natascha Osterkorn (piano) and Robert Hunger-Bühler . (Script, direction, camera work, editing.) Eins54 film with SFB , Arte and SF DRS . Germany 2000.
  • by Oliver Herrmann: Christine Schäfer, a film , Germany 2002 (music documentation)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roland Böer : In Search of the Serious Tones , FAZ.NET, June 12, 2006
  2. ↑ The supernatural splendor of the voices: "Stabat Mater" derstandard.at, August 9, 2007.
  3. ↑ Export world champion for beautiful sounds focus.de, January 21, 2008.
  4. ↑ Christine Schäfer extends her sabbatical klassikinfo.de, May 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b c biography on Christine Schäfer (as of 2013)
  6. ↑ a b c d biography on the website of the artist agency Augstein & Hahn (as of 2015)
personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, Christine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main